PUTTING THE “CRITICAL” INTO CRITICAL STUDIES IN ART EDUCATION HELEN SCOTT A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Education Manchester Metropolitan University November 2014 Abstract This study aims to examine critical studies in secondary art and design education; to question its teaching practices, content and purposes, with a view to proposing how these elements might work more critically. A broadly qualitative methodology is adopted, that draws on elements of a number of approaches including action research, interpretivism and naturalistic enquiry that claim to enable understanding of practice from practitioners’ points of view. The study is indebted to Bourdieu’s work; his concepts, including habitus, capital and field are used as ‘tools to think with’ enabling the possibility of opening up practice, of getting beneath taken for granted ways of acting and to “strain” interpretation of students’ views. Adopting a Bourdieuian frame also encouraged reflexivity throughout the study. The study initially uses questionnaires to explore a number of personal, initial “hunches” that have been acquired from my own experiences of students destined to become art and design teachers. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with student teachers; from these emerged the phenomena of an “in-between” position. The study goes on to argue that this position, where identity is in a state of flux may enable more critical interventions or enactments in art and design education. The study concludes by suggesting that although art and design education occurs within locations of constraints and structures, nevertheless, those involved in initial teacher education in art and design – including students, school mentors and university tutors - are all differently, but importantly placed to make critical studies teaching more critical. Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 1 Introduction: Putting the Critical into Critical Studies ............................................................. 2 Chapter One: The Plot .......................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Two: Literature Review .......................................................................................... 46 Chapter Three: “In-betweeners” .......................................................................................... 80 Chapter Four: Methodology and Methods ......................................................................... 101 Chapter Five: Opening the Doors of Curiosity:Trials and Trails of Questionnaires ............ 140 Chapter Six: The First Interview: Illuminating Curiosities ................................................... 158 Chapter Seven: The Second Interview: Listening Visually ................................................. 203 Chapter Eight: Putting the critical into critical studies? ........... Error! Bookmark not defined. Conclusion ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. References ..................................................................................................................... 2933 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 315 Acknowledgements I would like to wholeheartedly thank my supervisors Professor Liz Jones and Dr Rachel Holmes. For, without their continuing patience, tact, encouragement and challenge this thesis would have gone no further than rambling thoughts. I also thank my parents and brother, my wonderful son Laurie and my closest friends for their unending support and love in very challenging times. All the students, university colleagues and teachers I have been privileged to work with in my career have contributed to this study in a number of ways; in sharing their experiences and thoughts, in challenging, developing and supporting my thinking and practice; in short I have learned almost all I know from those I claimed to be teaching. To the students who were research participants in the study, I extend my particular thanks; and it is to you, and the numerous students I have worked with over the years that I dedicate this study. 1 Introduction: Putting the Critical into Critical Studies This study aims to examine critical studies in secondary art and design education, questioning its teaching practices, content and purposes, with a view to propose how these differing but interconnected elements might work more critically. The study neither claims universal applicability, nor suggests actions that will have revolutionary, certain or straightforward effects. Following Golafshani (2003:600) the ambitions of this small scale broadly qualitative study are to seek “illumination, understanding, and extrapolation to similar situations” rather than “causal determination, prediction, and generalization of findings”. The study begins with the premise that critical studies is extremely complex and paradoxical, where in its “very tacitness (in the art and design curriculum)…is its potency” (Thistlewood 2005:56). In the last thirty years there have been moves towards teaching pupils the “cognitive elements” or “critical discourse about art” (Hickman 2005:20) through critical studies. Although it is an element of secondary art and design education considered important for pupils (and has been so for a number of years) critical studies seems to be beset by limited content and teaching approaches that appear to promote technical skills in art above understanding and more contextual, critical knowledge of artworks and artists (Downing and Watson 2004). Typically, beginning and more experienced teachers, teacher educators and researchers can be found to be troubled over the purpose and practices of critical studies and its relationship to art making; these and other concerns continue to be reflected on and revisited in the literature. For example there are varied perspectives on the notion that there is an indivisible link between “making and criticising” art (Perry 1993 in Hickman 2005:16). It is also claimed that critical studies has the potential to challenge cultural hierarchies (Steers 1993) and offer “a more plural, more inclusive range of discourses” (Burgess 2003:109); however, its teaching practices perpetuate orthodoxies (Bancroft 2005, Mason and Steers 2007, Burgess 2003). Some shifts in practice (for example in the artworks referenced and 2 the ways in which they are discussed (e.g.Hickman 2005) have occurred but with few significant changes. It is my view, that despite its limitations, this study makes two unique contributions to the field. First, it provides a close and detailed examination of a group of student teachers’ perspectives on their critical studies teaching; this exposes many embedded, habitual and “taken for granted” practices, opening up the potential for understanding why these came into being, their effects and how different approaches might work. Second, related to this point, the study proposes how different “players” -students, teachers and teacher educators- might each draw on a range of ideas to shift current practices in critical studies. For example concepts associated with critical theory, critical pedagogy, critical thinking and visual culture might enable practitioners to consider different ways in which pupils learn about the visual beyond first impressions and material qualities, important as those are. Taken together, these two aspects of the study have the potential to be of interest to student teachers, teacher educators, art teachers who support beginning teachers and other researchers in the field and contribute to wider debates about the nature and purposes of art education for young people. Throughout the study, Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, field and capital are put to work to challenge and stretch thinking arising from interpreting students’ views of their critical studies teaching. Following Bourdieu’s commitment to reflexivity in research, a critical eye is cast over all aspects of the study; in tracing its origins in my own experiences and others’; in my multiple (and sometimes conflicting) identities (of researcher, teacher and teacher educator); in evaluating relevant literature and methodological choices and in questioning suggestions for future critical studies practices. Below each chapter is outlined and summarised to guide the reader through the study. 3 Chapter One: The Plot This chapter details the study’s aims as well as key research questions that orientate the inquiry. It also draws on “Critical Encounters”; significant personal experiences as a student teacher, teacher and teacher educator. Such encounters illustrate my long-standing interests in critical studies in secondary art and design education. They also underpin the desire to put the critical into critical studies. The chapter also plots a number of Bourdieu’s key concepts, which - as the study unfolds - are used to constantly develop my thinking as well as oblige a continuing reflexive stance. Chapter Two: The Literature Review This chapter, in undertaking a review of relevant literature is drawn to and uses the ideas surrounding a palimpsest. Such a move traces how critical studies has developed; where connecting threads of its origins,